I have a rectangular BLUE rubbermaid 50qt cooler and I usually will lose 2-3 degrees in the hour mash. That doesn't bother me and it seems to be the norm when mashing with a cooler.

As for cleaning, it was a little more difficult to clean when I was brewing in my kitchen. Brewing in the garage has made cleanup very easy. After dumping the grains and spraying out with a garden hose, I use the cooler to collect the initial hot water runnings from my chiller when chilling the wort. I then throw in some Oxiclean and use the mixture in the cooler to clean off other brewing equipment. When I'm finished, I dump the cooler, spray it out and dry it. Keeps the cooler clean and bright white!

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Jeremy Baker

"An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience." - Mitch Hedberg

I have a rectangular BLUE rubbermaid 50qt cooler and I usually will lose 2-3 degrees in the hour mash. That doesn't bother me and it seems to be the norm when mashing with a cooler.

As for cleaning, it was a little more difficult to clean when I was brewing in my kitchen. Brewing in the garage has made cleanup very easy. After dumping the grains and spraying out with a garden hose, I use the cooler to collect the initial hot water runnings from my chiller when chilling the wort. I then throw in some Oxiclean and use the mixture in the cooler to clean off other brewing equipment. When I'm finished, I dump the cooler, spray it out and dry it. Keeps the cooler clean and bright white!

I found a 120 qt igloo rectangle cooler on amazon for around $60, earlier this year when I went to bigger batches. I made a PVC manifold for it. Before that I used a 48 qt coleman that I found for $20.

Could one do a reverse Hochkurz step mash starting at 158F and letting it drop to 145? Does it matter if the Beta rest is before the Alpha rest? Or vice versa?Anyway, I do have a fair amount of head space in my cooler (36qt Coleman Xtreme) since I'm doing 4 gallon batches. The last batch I did, I mashed at 152F for 90 minutes and at the end of the mash it was at 147F. Oh well.

I just purchased the new version of the 70qt Coleman Xtreme. The drain seems a bit higher than before and the channel is not as long either. Long story short, bulkhead + bazooka tube does not work as well as before.

I am not giving up the bulk head as I enjoy being able to close the valve with one hand. I am now thinking 3/8" barb inside with a bit of tubing and a hose braid.

Overall i like the dimensions of the new version better. It is a bit shorter in length and a bit deeper. Walmart still sells the older version online.